Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of harassment and cyberbullying. Reader discretion is advised.
Lifetime’s Mommy Meanest chronicles the true story of Michigan mother Kendra Gail Licari and her daughter. According to People Magazine, the network announced that the film is loosely based on the case against Licari “and other cases similar to it.” Cast members like Lisa Rinna and her real-life daughter Delilah Belle Hamlin play fictionalized versions of the mother-daughter duo. The movie premiered on Saturday, May 11, 2024.
Kendra Gail Licari, a high school basketball coach, harassed her daughter and the daughter’s then-boyfriend. NBC News stated that Licari sent mean and hateful messages to them anonymously. She used a software platform to mask her location. Moreover, the software showed that the messages came from multiple numbers and area codes and incriminated her daughter’s own friends for the bullying.
People Magazine reported that Licari and her daughter reported the bullying to the school district, Beal City Schools. The former, along with the mother of her daughter’s then-boyfriend, began helping investigate the cybercrime case. Later, the local police and the FBI got involved in the case and eventually linked Licari to the crime. She made a full confession and took a plea deal, but did not reveal the motive behind it.
Kendra Gail Licari now: Was the Michigan mother convicted of the crime?
According to the Michigan Department of Corrections, Kendra Gail Licari is now serving time in the Special Alternative Incarceration Women’s Facility. Licari received a prison sentence of 19 months to five years in April 2023. She had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking a minor, per Morning Sun. The prison records display her earliest release date as November 3, 2024, and the maximum discharge date as April 3, 2028.
NBC News reported that Licari first faced charges following her arrest in December 2022. Reports and complaints revealed that she sent hateful, demeaning, and mean text messages and online direct messages to her daughter and the daughter’s then-boyfriend. Per People Magazine, prosecutor David Barberi said, “By and large it was mostly just harassing-type text messages, demeaning, demoralizing, and just mean texts.”
Isabella County Sheriff Michael Main described the said messages to be “specific in nature.” Main believed that this indicated “they may be from someone who they know.” In his report, he added, “Most messages contain hateful speech and contain language like, ‘kill yourself …’ A lot of the messages repeat this same language.”
Kendra Gail Licari was a girls’ basketball coach for her daughter’s school district, Beal City Schools. She and her daughter initially reported harassment in the school district, and they began an official investigation. Licari and the mother of her daughter’s then-boyfriend attempted to assist the school district throughout the investigation. Later, they took the case to local law enforcement as the crime did not occur on school grounds or involved electronic devices that the school owned.
Morning Sun stated that they started receiving the messages in early 2021. Prosecutors composed an official document comprising 349 pages of harassing text and social media messages during the investigation. Eventually, the FBI joined the investigation and the computer crime division unit made a breakthrough. They soon became suspicious of Licari’s involvement in her daughter’s cyberbullying case.
Per the outlet, FBI analysts linked Kendra Gail Licari to the case after tracking down the IP address. NBC News stated that the IP address came “from a Spectrum host from the Mt Pleasant area” and believed the individual “opened the link with an Apple iPhone.” The report also mentioned that Licari’s was the “only number that matched anyone involved in this case. They found the same phone number in the IP address of the messages the victims received.
Licari made a full confession after Isabella County Sheriff Michael Main and Detective Scott Clarke confronted her. While confessing, she mentioned Licari getting “caught up in sending the messages and it just continued.” The mother asked authorities “if this matter could be kept quiet.” Licari did not want others to “find out about it.” She claimed she was concerned about her daughter as others would “interact negatively with her.”
People Magazine reported that Kendra Gail Licari used software that helped her hide her location while sending the messages. Prosecutor David Barberi called the case “a version of ‘cyber Munchausen’s syndrome.'” He said so because of Licari’s behavior “where you’re making somebody feel bad or need you in their life because of this behavior.”
Licari initially faced two counts of stalking a minor, two counts of using a computer to commit a crime, and one count of obstruction of justice. As part of the plea deal, she only pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking a minor. Judge Mark Duthie sentenced her to 19 months to five years in the “truly horrible” case, per Morning Sun.
The mother spoke to Judge Duthie during her sentencing hearing. She said she was ashamed, remorseful, and embarrassed by her actions and would take it all back if she could.
Kendra Gail Licari’s story in Mommy Meanest is now streaming on Lifetime.
